Canvas Templates

Explore CDLI's Canvas course templates for faculty to use whether teaching face-to-face, hybrid, or fully online

Take Your Canvas Course to the Next Level

CDLI has developed several different Canvas course templates for Seattle U faculty to use to get up and running in Canvas quickly and conform to best practices for hybrid and online learning, including:

Canvas Templates thumbnail examples

  • Once a Week Template (or for flipped classes)
  • Tuesday-Thursday Template (or for courses that meet twice a week)
  • Monday-Wednesday-Friday Template (or for courses that meet three times a week)
  • Asynchronous Template (for fully online courses that never meet synchronously)
  • Law School Template (for Law courses that meet once a week on a 16 week semester)
  • Tuesday-Thursday Law School Template (for 16 week Law courses that meet twice a week)

Our Canvas course templates can be modified and used regardless of whether your course meets face-to-face or online.

In addition, CDLI has a guide on how to import a CDLI Canvas template into your Canvas course shell.

Preview and Download any of CDLI's Canvas Course Templates here

Template Updates

Canvas Page Templates icon

CDLI regularly reviews and updates our Canvas course templates to implement improvements and enhancements. Below is a summary of recent updates.

If you are currently using an old version of our templates, please contact CDLI for help migrating your course to utilize an updated and redesigned template.

March 2024 Template Redesign and Additional Updates

In March 2024, CDLI updated the Canvas course templates to include redesigned visual elements (including new color schemes, page banners, and other aesthetic changes), updates for accessibility (including removing tables from the home page navigational portal), updates for enhanced design and functionality for mobile users, and integrating a TILT framework for assignments, discussions and quizzes for increased transparency that helps students better understand how and why they are doing what they are doing in their course, which is in alignment with Universal Design for Learning, a framework for making your course pedagogy more accessible for all students.

November 2021 Accessibility Updates

In November 2021, CDLI's Canvas Course templates were been updated to better meet web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) level AA. Some of the changes made to the templates include:

  • Added a caption, code updates, and adjusted color and contrast levels to make the home page table more accessible
  • Other than navigational portal on the home page, all single cell tables removed and replaced with horizontal divider lines and headings
  • Ensured all images have an appropriate "alt" description or are marked as decorative
  • Adjusted heading levels to ensure proper nesting of headings
  • Removed all-caps titles

While CDLI works hard to ensure that our Canvas templates meet accessibility guidelines, if you have students with specific accommodation requests, contact Disability Services to ensure your online course, content, and assignments are accessible and address students' needs.